Patient exit detection mechanism for hospital bed
First Claim
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1. An apparatus comprising:
- a load supporting frame which is supported by a plurality of spaced load cells first means responsive to said load cells for determining a location on said frame of the center of gravity of a load supported by said frame, and second means for determining whether said location of said center of gravity is within a predetermined region.
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Abstract
A hospital bed includes a support frame which is supported on the bed by four load cells and which in turn supports a mattress having a patient thereon. A method and apparatus of detecting patient exit from the bed involve extraction from the weight measured by each load cell of the portion of the measured weight corresponding to the weight of the patient, use of this extracted weight information to calculate a center of gravity of the patient with respect to the frame, a determination of whether the calculated center of gravity is within a predetermined region, and generation of an alarm if the center of gravity is outside the region.
392 Citations
18 Claims
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1. An apparatus comprising:
- a load supporting frame which is supported by a plurality of spaced load cells first means responsive to said load cells for determining a location on said frame of the center of gravity of a load supported by said frame, and second means for determining whether said location of said center of gravity is within a predetermined region.
- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
- 9. In a hospital bed which includes a patient support frame supported by a plurality of spaced load cells, and detecting means coupled to said load cells and responsive to physical movement relative to said frame of a patient supported by said frame for detecting the patient leaving the frame, the improvement comprising said detecting means having means for determining a location on said frame of the center of gravity of a patient supported by said frame and for determining whether said location of said center of gravity is within a predetermined region.
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12. A method of detecting patient exit from a patient supporting frame which is part of a bed and is supported by a plurality of spaced load cells, comprising the steps of:
- detecting physical movement relative to said frame of a patient supported by said frame by monitoring variation of a location on said frame of the center of gravity of the patient supported by said frame based on signals from said load cells, and determining whether said location of said center of gravity is within a predetermined region.
- View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. An apparatus comprising:
- a bed with a patient support section having a mattress which has substantially parallel side edges and an upwardly facing patient support surface extending between said side edges;
load cell means cooperating with said patient support section to detect physical movement relative to said mattress of a patient supported by the mattress;
first means responsive to said load cell means for determining a location, along an axis substantially perpendicular to said edges, of the center of gravity of the patient supported on the mattress; and
second means responsive to said first means for determining whether said location is within a predetermined region, and for generating a signal serving as a warning of patient exit from the bed when said location is determined to be outside said predetermined region. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
- a bed with a patient support section having a mattress which has substantially parallel side edges and an upwardly facing patient support surface extending between said side edges;
Specification